Bruno signed in January mate. Who did he replace?
I said it back then when we signed him. Had a feeling we knew Pogba was off this summer. Then covid 19 came along and that went out the window. But maybe it didn't.
If we sign DVB then I think he will leave. We all know he's tried to for last 18 months. His brother and agent never shut up.
You keep talking about Pogba, who isn't really part of my posts except to say that if he leaves and we replace him
If we were replacing Pogba though it wouldn't just be about whoever directly takes his place in the team. It's also about replacing the qualities he brings to the side, even if that's by improving other positions to compensate. In that sense the Bruno signing would have been part of replacing Pogba as he'd be the one bringing a lot of the qualities Pogba previously brought, not VDB. Hell, for all we know Bruno was signed with the possibility of Pogba leaving in mind.
Put it this way: if we see VDB + Bruno replacing Pogba + Perreira/Lingard in our first eleven over the space of two transfer windows then I would personally say that is a net improvement, even though it involves our most talented player being sold. So I'd be less concerned about how VDB compares directly to Pogba (a comparison that hardly any midfielders we could actually sign would fare well in on paper) and more concerned about how the overall team we'd be left with looks.
A very good point, I can see what you mean. But in that case my argument would be that a team aiming where we're aiming needs
two Bruno/Pogba level creative players, not one. VdB doesn't really even factor into that, he's another Fred/McT level player for me (and I say that as a big fan of both). I don't see replacing Pogba with Bruno as satisfactory, if that is in fact what we've done. We needed to
add Bruno to Pogba, and if Pogba's leaving then his replacement needs to be top calibre. Gaining Bruno and VdB and losing Pogba is not that much better than treading water.
Of course, if that deficit is down to needing to free up money to buy Sancho, then you're talking, because across the team as a whole that is then a big step up.
It sounds like I'm slamming VdB here but I really don't mean to. I like him a lot as a player and I'd be happy to have him here. I just don't think he's good enough to expect to automatically unseat McT/Fred. He'd improve the squad dramatically, but not really the first XI.